"We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us." Isaiah 59:11
How close is our God? Some would suppose that we are too insignificant to catch His attention in the midst of all of events and happenings in all creation (even the Psalmist expressed this when he declares "What is man that Thou art mindful of him?"). We may even feel that He will not notice that we are not even acknowledging that He exits. We will make a choice that is simply rebellion, and then wait for "nothing" to happen. This "nothing" is our sign that all this "God talk" may be a farce...and we decide to "sin on".
We may even dedicate ourselves at times to doing right because of the hope of "good stuff" coming our way. We convince ourselves in that moment that we are planting a seed of good deeds that will lead to a "success" harvest. THEN, when the harvest does not come when we think it should, we abandon the "good works" pathway for self medication and feel good choices (though many of these will lead us further into darkness).
We are convinced that God does nothing while our enemies close in on all sides, and we live under the pressure of constant persecution and impoverished demise. We watch as our enemies seem happy and healthy, while we are sad and sickly ... it seems so unfair. The ungodly prosper while the echoes of the voices the prosperity prophets just bounce off of our empty bank accounts and amassing miss-fortune of spiritual failures. Our enemies seem to win!
Why has God asked us to "love our enemies"? Why has He encouraged us to "do good unto those who spitefully abuse us"? Why is it that the goodness of God leads men to repentance, while voices scream behind pulpits of the FEAR of GOD and the WRATH of GOD - not as a tearful warning to the enemy but as a threat that GOD will get them. And God does not get them ... when we think He should.
YES ... judgment is sure, Hell is real, and God will deliver His people. The timing of this is where the Sovereignty of God is in conflict with the temporal patience of Man. Waiting is a touted as a game for the weak...but scripture teaches elsewise.
Psalm 35 - is an amazing passage where our Triune God seems to wrestle over this issue and this verse deals a catastrophic blow to my need for revenge and gloating over my enemy. Here is what God's response is to the Enemy's time of illness: "But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom. I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother." Psalm 35:13,14
Obviously my thoughts are not His thoughts and my ways are not His ways --- has he not shown mercy and grace to me, I would be hopelessly lost today ... but His goodness led me to His Salvation. NOW I MUST WAIT and worship for others, I must not become a waiting Warship -- ready to launch an all out assault on my enemy. THAT ASSAULT BELONGS TO GOD ... what belongs to me is waiting.
Read the following expanded devotional translation of Isaiah 40:31:
"They that ...wait, (look eagerly for, hope, linger and lie in wait to collect, bind together...to be collected, and bound together. The simple fact of this type of waiting is ... those waiting have collective contentment with the abilities of the one they trust)
Upon the Lord, shall renew (This waiting causes those waiting to pass on or away for the threat; to pass through, pass by, go through, grow up, to change, to go on from there as the moment of trouble seems to pass on quickly away (vanish) to come on anew, to grow new life that allows them to pass through to overstep the moment; change to change, substitute, alter, to be changed for better, renew to show a newness of ...
their strength, (power, might, that produces a wealth of "good soil", adds an adaptability... like a type of lizard-color-change to better fit in with its surroundings.
They shall rise up with wings as eagles,
they shall run and be not weary, t
hey shall walk and not faint."
It's not you,
that needs to war against the Enemy -
That is God's Battle ...so that there can be:
Redeeming,
Reclaiming,
and Restoring.
It is yours to be in waiting worship -- not a waiting warship
-Wait on the Lord!!!
HLFA,
Jeff